Post by Sam on Nov 26, 2014 1:43:47 GMT 9

I just read Adam's blog post about storytelling and thought I'd share a few more storytelling games that I've enjoyed playing with friends. I love such games and would also be curious to hear what others you all might suggest.

Sir Gawain and the Green Night

1. Each person gets a handful of tokens -- these can be coins, candy, anything you want.

2. The goal of the game is: (1) to tell the most ridiculous made-up story about an adventure you had, and (2) to collect the most tokens.

3. So one person starts: they tell the most ridiculous, made-up story about an adventure they had.

4. However, at any point during the story, somebody else can interrupt and say: "No, I don't think that's really what happened! Didn't you actually ___________?" ("Didn't you suddenly grow three heads?", "Didn't the goblins take off their shoes and start dancing?", "Didn't you actually fall off your horse and turn into a penguin?", etc.) If the story-teller accepts the challenge, then they take a token from the person who challenged them, say "Oh, yes, you're right! That is exactly what happened!", and continue the story in this new direction. If, however, the story-teller does not want to accept the challenge, then they have to give one of their own tokens to the person who challenged them, and then they can ignore what that person said and just keep going with the original story.

5. When one person finishes their story, then the next person tells a story. Of course, challenge away! (But if you give away all your tokens, you can't challenge anymore, so challenge sparingly.)

6. At the end, everyone votes on who told the most ridiculous story. You also see who has the most tokens at the end of the game, and that person also wins.

Werewolves (a.k.a. Mafia)

(I'll assume you're playing with 6 people; if you're playing with more or less, you can adjust the numbers below.)

1. One person is chosen to be the game-master. This person does not play, but rather leads/organizes the rounds.

2. Everyone else sits in a circle and closes their eyes. The game-master announces: "I am going to choose two werewolves." Then, the game-master taps two people on their heads -- they are the werewolves, but nobody else knows it! Everybody else is a villager.

3. The game-master then says: "Werewolves, open your eyes -- but everyone else, keep your eyes closed!" That way the werewolves know who each other are, but nobody else does. Then: "OK, werewolves, close your eyes! OK, everyone can open their eyes now."

4. The rest of the game is organized into "day" phases (when everyone's eyes are open) and "night" phases (when eyes are closed).

5. During the day phase, everyone gets to vote on one person that they think is a werewolf -- that person gets executed and is out of the game. But to do that, you have to have a discussion first. You have to justify why so-and-so is acting suspiciously, why you think so-and-so is right to accuse so-and-so, why you yourself couldn't possibly be a werewolf, etc. Some people like to stay quiet to avoid suspicion; others like to talk a lot in order to avoid suspicion; there are lots of strategies, but often the discussion can get quite lively!

6. After the discussion, everyone gets a single vote on who to kill. Then, the three people with the most votes have to give defense speeches, explaining why they aren't the werewolf. Then everyone else gets a final vote on which of those three people is the werewolf and should be killed. Whoever gets the most votes is eliminated from the game. But, that person does not reveal if they actually were a werewolf or not. Nobody knows until the game is over!

7. The game-master then announces the night-phase. Everyone "goes to sleep" (i.e. closes their eyes). If one or both of the werewolves are still alive, the game-master asks them to "wake up" (i.e. open their eyes) and point to a person that they want to kill during the night. (They have to agree, but without talking, so nobody knows who they are.) Then the game-master says: "ok werewolves go back to sleep. Ok, everyone wake up. It's a beautiful morning! Well, it's a beautiful morning for everyone except for ________, who was viciously murdered by werewolves during the night!" And that person is eliminated from the game (but can't reveal if they were a werewolf or a villager -- sometimes, a werewolf might kill another werewolf in order to reduce suspicions.)

8. Then it's another day-phase: discuss who should or shouldn't be killed, why, vote, defend, do a final vote, and eliminate another person. HOWEVER, if you've been killed already in a previous round, then you can't take part in the discussion! Your eyes are open in every night-phase, so you know who is the werewolf, so you have to just keep quiet for the rest of the game!

9. Then it's another night-phase: werewolves secretly choose another person to kill.

10. And so on; the game continues until both of the werewolves are dead (in which case all the towns-people win), or until there's only one remaining townsperson (in which case the werewolves win.)

VARIANT: If you have enough people, the game-master can also choose to secretly designate one of the townspeople as a "medium." That person has a special power. During the night-phase, the game-master can tell the medium to open their eyes, look around, and point at one person they think might be a werewolf. If they point at a werewolf, the game-master nods "yes", if not, the game-master shakes their head "no." This can really be fun, because then during the day-phase discussions, the medium might know for sure who is a werewolf! But, they don't want to reveal that they are the medium, because then the werewolves will kill them during the next night phase!

VARIANT: You could also designate one person as a "doctor." That person also has a special power. During the night phase, the game-master can tell the doctor to open their eyes; if the person whom the villagers decided to kill during the last day phase was actually a werewolf, then the game-master nods their head "yes"; if not, they nod their head "no." This way, the doctor always knows how many werewolves are left in the game! But, they don't want to reveal that they are the doctor during day-time discussion, because then the werewolves will kill them during the next night phase!

Oracle

1. Everyone gets a piece of paper and something to write with.

2. Everyone writes a question at the top of their paper, then passes their page to the person on their right.

3. Then, everyone reads the question on the page they were given, writes an answer to the question just below it, and then folds the top of the page over so that the initial question is covered, but the answer is still showing.

4. Then pass to the person on your right.

5. Then read the answer on the page you were just given (don't uncover the original question!) and write a new question that you think the answer was answering. Then fold over the top of the page again so that it covers everything except your new question.

6. Pass to the right.

7. Write an answer to the question, fold, pass, etc, until everyone's out of room on the paper.

8. At the end, it's fun to go around and read the question at the top of each page followed by the answer at the bottom, and then read through the whole page to see the chain of misunderstandings that led from the top to the bottom!

Post by Sam on Nov 26, 2014 1:55:12 GMT 9

Everyone sits in a circle. As a group you tell a story, but each person is only allowed to say one word or phrase. So it might go like this:

"Once upon a time""There lived""A""girl""With""Enormous""Ears""That""Were""Really""Spectacular""and""blueberry-shaped...."

The turn-order goes clockwise around the circle. So after you add to the story, then the person to your right has to continue, etc. You could also play it with just two people; just keep shooting back and forth.

Post by Adam Beck on Nov 28, 2014 8:00:42 GMT 9

Sam, thanks for sharing these great storytelling ideas, and in such helpful detail. I'll definitely keep them in mind and give them a try when I have the chance!

Adam Beck is the founder of Bilingual Monkeys and The Bilingual Zoo, and the author of the popular book Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability amzn.to/22XKuCt and the humorous novel How I Lost My Ear amzn.to/2EsjVRS, both available worldwide. Please support The Bilingual Zoo through Adam's Patreon page www.patreon.com/bilingualmonkeys.

Post by Reina on Jan 28, 2015 18:28:28 GMT 9

Story telling is for us a great source of minority language time. My kids wake up reaaaaally early on the weekends and they come to my bed. In order to get 20-30 minutes before I need to go out of bed to prepare breakfast for them, I started to tell them stories. We have two characters (2 brothers) that live in the woods and have all kind of adventures. Before I start to tell they give me more characters, situations, places...and with that information I create a story. It does not have to be really fancy. Just characters meet each other, mess starts, when it looks like the good ones are winning, it goes wrong and finally the good ones win. They absolutely love them and every Saturday and Sunday come running to my bed asking for a story. They also find kind of special that it is a one-time story as I never can repeat the same story again (I forget them really fast...I am getting old, hahaha).

We have also been using storytelling cubes (https://www.storycubes.com/) but as I found them really expensive for what you get, I made them myself with a few building blocks and some stickers. Kids also like very much to play with them and we can keep on changing the stickers as they get new interest.

Another source of storytelling for us is history-telling. They absolutely love to hear how it was when they were small, when they started to talk, to walk, the day they flooded the second floor (now I can laugh but that day I did cry, hahaha). Nothing fancy, nothing long, just small pieces of their lives. They also like to hear how it was when I was small.

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Amy: Cute code switching this morning when my 3 year old told me "I get my pótamo" (she meant her hippo soft toy). This mixing was music to my ears... It means she is truly growing trilingual. Apr 6, 2019 2:51:35 GMT 9*

Adam Beck: Lovely, Amy! Good for you, and good for her! P.S. I like hippos.Apr 7, 2019 10:32:37 GMT 9

Alba: So funny, Amy! Great to hear I love the word Hypo, every child says it different! My son did something similar when he say "This tocotó", he calls horses "tocotó" based on the noise they made when trotting (tocotó, iiii (neigh)-ok, for a Spanish ear) Apr 8, 2019 6:52:09 GMT 9

Amy: Cheer Alba and Adam Beck! . I love these "baby" words. They are so cute. I like the "This tocotó" another example of state of the art Spanglish <3Apr 9, 2019 4:54:05 GMT 9

Mayken: Got home from a short trip to Zürich - heard German, French & Italian on the train, and both German and French in the tram. And everyone speaks English too. It was nice to be able to choose which of my languages I wanted to speak!May 6, 2019 23:07:42 GMT 9

Mayken: It is, Amy . I didn't realise how much I had missed it.May 7, 2019 23:10:43 GMT 9

Amy: Last year, a new colleague joined my team. She's trilingual in the same languages as me. It was like magic. We change languages and even code-switch several time a day. I had missed that so much!! My monolingual colleagues must think we're freaks! lolMay 8, 2019 4:56:12 GMT 9

Amy: Unfortunately, she has resigned and is leaving shortly. I was so proud to introduce her to my eldest, one day that I had brought her to show her round my office. And to introduce other bi/multilingual colleagues. Show how important languages are.May 8, 2019 4:58:26 GMT 9

Mayken: That must have been wonderful, Amy! I'm sorry she is leaving. I would love to find someone like that. We had an English intern last year who spoke German and French. We chatted a lot.May 8, 2019 6:06:01 GMT 9

Caro C.: Oh Amy I sort of feel related to what you are saying. Some months ago I made a friend from the US. She happens to be a neighbor with four kids. We’ve been sharing back and forth and I’d love my baby girl to eventually be able to share with her childrenMay 13, 2019 12:55:09 GMT 9

Caro C.: Although maybe they will be a bit old for her, still we (I mean their mom = Sarah and me) both are very happy and grateful for each other as friends.May 13, 2019 12:57:05 GMT 9*

Mayken: As of yesterday, I am aunt to a baby girl who lives in our ml country with 2 ml parents, and I'm already planning to get them a nice nursery rhymes CD for our first visit. May 16, 2019 20:03:47 GMT 9*

Caro C.: OMG I just came across this song and it filled my heart with joy and excitement...perfect for all of us who are parents: youtu.be/g1fcnhB8GOYMay 19, 2019 14:01:55 GMT 9*

Adam Beck: Caro, thanks for sharing that lovely song. Raffi was one of our very favorite musicians when my kids were small. We listened to him all the time. I highly recommend his albums as a source of very enjoyable and very effective English input. May 20, 2019 15:32:26 GMT 9

Mayken: My daughter is on a field trip this week and I feel like I've lost my main purpose May 20, 2019 20:03:33 GMT 9*